First Horizon National Corp. (FHN), the holding company for First Tennessee Bank NA, reported Friday a narrower-than-expected net loss for its third quarter, helped by lower provision for loan losses as well as reduced non-interest expense.
According to Memphis, Tennessee-based First Horizon, it experienced positive results in key areas during third quarter 2009, which reflected encouraging signs including overall credit quality improvement, average core deposit growth, net interest margin expansion, and further balance sheet reduction.
Third-quarter net loss was $35.01 million, narrower than loss of $122.22 million a year ago. Net loss for the quarter available to common shareholders narrowed to $52.86 million or $0.24 per share from $125.10 million or $0.58 per share a year earlier.
On a continuing operations basis, loss was $24.81 million or $0.20 per share, compared to loss of $120.47 million or $0.57 per share in the previous year.
On average, 23 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.32 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Total revenues for the quarter dropped 5% to $494.72 million from $519.22 million in the prior-year quarter. Thirteen analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $503.79 million for the quarter.
In the preceding second quarter, the company had reported net loss of $105.5 million and net loss available to common shareholders of $123.2 million, or $0.57 per share, on total revenues of $491.4 million.
On a segmental basis, third-quarter revenues from Regional Banking dropped 5% to $205.38 million from last year's $216.20 million, and while Capital Markets revenues climbed 39% to $151.12 million from $109.02 million a year ago. Corporate revenues also surged to $33.90 million from $6.93 million a year ago. In the quarter, revenues from Mortgage Banking were $68.59 million, down 50% from last year's $137.75 million, and National Specialty Lending revenues fell 28% to $35.73 million from $49.32 million a year ago.
Quarterly net interest income declined 14% to $190.90 million from $223.15 million a year ago, while net interest margin grew to 3.14% from 3.01% last year. Non-interest income in the quarter rose 3% to $303.75 million from $296.28 million a year ago.
Non-interest expense dropped 10% to $349.90 million from $387.52 million a year ago, and provision for loan losses reduced 46% to $185 million from $340 million in the previous year.
Among others in the sector, Regions Financial Corp. (RF) is slated to release its third quarter results on Tuesday, October 20. Wall Street analysts expect the company to post a loss of $0.25 per share on revenues of $1.58 billion, in comparison to prior year's earnings of $0.11 per share and revenues of $1.64 billion, respectively.
SunTrust Banks, Inc. (STI), the holding company for SunTrust Bank, is scheduled to release its third-quarter results on Thursday, October 22. Analysts project loss of $0.58 per share on revenues of $2.12 billion. In the previous year, the company had recorded earnings of $0.88 per share on revenues of $2.43 billion.
Looking ahead, Bryan Jordan, Chief Executive Officer of First Horizon stated, "We're continuing our focus on our strategic repositioning efforts and making good progress in spite of a weak economy and a difficult operating environment. First Tennessee Bank and FTN Financial had positive trends, our proactive approach to credit quality continues to pay off and our efficiency efforts advanced. We're encouraged by our continued progress. First Horizon is well-positioned to take advantage of opportunities and keep advancing on the path to sustained profitability."
FHN is currently trading at $13.03, down $0.46 or 3.41%, on a volume of 185 thousand shares. In the past 52 weeks, shares have been trading between $6.84 and $14.82.
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